We’re excited to introduce you to the always interesting and insightful Peilin Kuo. We hope you’ll enjoy our conversation with Peilin below.
Peilin, thanks so much for taking the time to share your insights and lessons with us today. We’re particularly interested in hearing about how you became such a resilient person. Where do you get your resilience from?
I’m an independent filmmaker based in New York. I’ve been making short films since I moved to New York from Taiwan in 2002. I didn’t go to film school so I make short films to hone my skills. In 2023, after I finished my sci-fi short film “SNEILA: You Will Never Know”, I decided to take on a bigger challenge and make my first feature film “Gan Bei” which is shot in Taiwan and is currently in post-production.
Where do I get my resilience from? It may be my personality. Maybe because I didn’t come from money and as a middle child, I learned how to resist hardship to get what I wanted from a young age. Over the years, resilience has developed as one of my strengths, an important quality to be an independent filmmaker.
Great, so let’s take a few minutes and cover your story. What should folks know about you and what you do?
I’d like to talk about my feature film “Gan Bei,” which means “cheers” in English. It’s about a struggling Taiwanese American actress in Los Angeles, who goes back to Taiwan to search for her lost love and to reconcile with her unsettled past.
Making this movie has been an extraordinary journey. There is no script but a story outline. Actors have to improvise the dialogue based on their characters. This is my first time making a movie without a written script. I’m extremely fortunate to have a group as resilient as me to support the movie, from the cast to the crew. I am also grateful for the generous people who helped fund this movie.
It was a dream come true to make a movie in Taiwan. My experiences of living in both the US and Taiwan helped me blend the artistic storytelling traditions of East and West.
There is so much advice out there about all the different skills and qualities folks need to develop in order to succeed in today’s highly competitive environment and often it can feel overwhelming. So, if we had to break it down to just the three that matter most, which three skills or qualities would you focus on?
There is an old Chinese saying: “All success needs three elements: you must be at the right time, in the right place, and with the right people, all are indispensable.” Now, looking back, I could not agree more. For filmmaking, in my opinion, the “right people” are the most important element. Filmmaking is a collaborative art. To be a film director, you need a team to bring your vision alive, together.
I’m still on my journey to become a better filmmaker. For those who are in their early journey, my suggestion is that talent is only foundational, it’s perseverance that keeps you going.
Is there a particular challenge you are currently facing?
I’m in the process of making my first feature film, Gan Bei. The biggest challenge in making this movie is the co-production between Taiwan and the US. The movie is part shot in Taiwan, and part shot in Los Angeles. When we shot in Taiwan, I brought my cinematographer and the gaffer from the US to Taiwan. I had to overcome the language barrier between Mandarin and English, and everyone in the crew was working together for the first time. As a low-budget indie film, we were on an extremely tight schedule. Every shooting day was like fighting in a war, everyone had to be at their best. The beauty is that I witnessed the great creative energy that emerges out of limitations.
Contact Info:
- Website: https://www.ganbeifilm.com
- Instagram: @ganbeifilm / @peilinkuony
- Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/profile.php?id=100057765406518&mibextid=LQQJ4d
Image Credits
All rights ©Peilin Kuo
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